Zombie Girl
by Indigo Scrawl
Summary: Given that Reno was a Turk, it was not like dead people were a new thing for him. Although stumbling across one that should have already been absorbed into the Lifestream was a little weird. Then the dead person came back to life and threatened to kill him, and things only got crazier from there. (Takes place after Advent Children. RenoxOC.)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

The water was cold, and the world was chaos.

_Breathe_.

Reaching for something, anything.

_Breathe_.

Heart pounding like a drum.

_Breathe_.

Lungs were screaming.

_Breathe_.

Strength was fading fast.

_Breathe!_

There was no air, no relief.

_Breathe!_

Death was coming.

_Breathe!_

There was so much confusion, and so much panic.

_Breathe!_

No more hope was left.

_BREATHE!_

* * *

It was a dull, grey day.

The sky was the sort of colour that looked like there would be rain, but as of yet was unwilling to release the deluge from it's swollen and cumbersome clouds. Silhouetted against it was irregularly shaped piles of debris and old, derelict ruins. Jagged metal stabbed upward amongst the twisted skeletons of abandoned buildings. All of it was coated in layers of dust and ash, the colours faded and dull against the dim world.

Two suit-clad men strode between the looming mounds. Despite their similar attire, they did not look like the other at all. One, who looked to be in his thirties, was tall, broad shouldered and intimidating; his suit was immaculate and did nothing to hide his authoritative stride. His head was completely bald, and a serious frown marked his face.

The other was still tall, but not quite as daunting looking, and walked with an easy-going swagger, like a strutting tomcat. He seemed several years younger than his partner, and somewhat less poised than his companion. His hands were jammed into his pockets, his suit rumpled with the shirt un-tucked. His vibrant red hair was spiky; part of it tugged back in a long, thin ponytail.

Neither of the men seemed concerned with their hushed surroundings, and walked purposefully between the heaps of waste and scraps. Their footsteps stirred up small clouds of soot, and crunched softly on the gravel. Occasionally the red-haired man would aim a halfhearted kick at some form of rubbish.

"Man," the red head said to his silent companion. "I can't believe Rufus has us acting like his errand boys, yo."

His silent companion grunted, expression unreadable with his dark sunglasses hiding his eyes from view.

"I mean really, wouldn't a simple phone-call work? Instead he sends us running all over Gaia, yo." Again, he received only silence. Not that he seemed bothered. The cat-like man continued to amble along beside his companion, scanning the area comfortably.

Eventually the two men entered an area that seemed somewhat clearer than the rest. At its centre the remains of an old church reared up, the only partially intact building in sight. The roof was singed and caved in, and the stonewalls were chipped and blackened from some explosion long ago. Yet still it remained, amongst the wreckage.

"You think he'll really be here?" was the next question. "I mean, I know Tifa said that this is where he would be, but I thought he got over all that, yo."

The broad shouldered companion stepped forward and shoved the heavy wooden doors open and walked inside, his footsteps echoing through the huge monolith. Scanning the large space, he found nothing to prove that they were in the right place.

"Anyone home?" the red head called out, walking in with none of the cautiousness of the previous man. "Seems pretty empty to me, yo."

The other man glanced around, "the president wants us to find him. We should wait."

"Aw man, I wanna get going. It's going to start raining and I don't want to get caught outside, yo."

"Reno."

"Alright, alright. No need to get your feathers in a flap, Rude," the red haired man, Reno, said. He raised his hands defensively and ambled further into the church. "But, yo, if he ain't here soon you're paying for drinks tonight."

Rude grunted and stood silently by a stone pillar, obviously finished interacting with his chatty partner. He stayed there calmly surveying his surroundings, while also keeping an eye on the door. While he waited, Reno shrugged and strode away.

Reno found it annoying that ever since Kadaj's gang had been stopped, and even before that; after Meteor Fall, there hadn't been anything particularly interesting going on, not for the remnants of his division, anyway. He was Turk, hard-wired for suspense and action. This exile posed upon the few remaining Shinra employees, this peacetime was killing him. It left too much time open for thinking, and for remembering.

He scowled, and kicked a chunk of stone away from him. He watched it roll across the wooden floor, before it tumbled into a pool of crystal clear water.

The water seemed to sparkle with an ethereal glow, despite the gloomy skies. Soft ripples spread out from where the rock had fallen in, rolling and glittering from the luminescence. He watched the ripples spread, eyes following them across the pool until they came to rest on something startling.

A body.

Face down in the water; it brushed gently against the far side of the pool, showing no signs of life. What little skin could be seen was a ghostly white, and long, matted strands of pale blonde hair drifted through the water. Soaked, heavy clothes clung to the bodies figure, a dark shadow on the eerie surface.

"Holy…Gaia!" Reno cursed, and stepped away in shock. "Rude, you better come take a look at this!"

Rude complied, his face showing no expression until he saw what Reno had been talking about. Once he did, he lifted his dark sunglasses to get a better look. Then he cursed as well, in a rare show of emotion.

"What do we do?" the red head asked. Of course, he already knew, and was carefully edging around the pool to inspect the body. "Where did this come from?" He muttered, crouching down. "Yo, Rude, ya don't think…"

"No," was the short reply from this bald partner, who was also making his way towards the body.

Reno nodded, and glanced back at the body. He hadn't really thought this was because of Cloud. It wasn't like Cloud wouldn't kill someone, but that was only if he was forced too. However, there was no way he would just leave the body lying around, and especially not in the precious waters that had cured the Stigma. Cloud wasn't disrespectful like that; in fact he had to be one of the most uptight people Reno knew. Although, he had lightened up recently.

Slowly the Reno reached out, eyes sharp as he carefully brushed his fingers against the body's wrist. He didn't think he was going to get a pulse. The skin was ridiculously cold, even for a corpse, as if it had been frozen. It made no sense, because a warm mist was hovering just above the water, and that should have heated up the body, at least a little. Transfixed, and holding his breath, the red head studied the motionless form.

The corpse looked to be female, though a very skinny and twig-like one. It also looked like the victim had been dressed for winter, which was even more confusing. Despite it being overcast and miserable, and had been for the last week, it had also been muggy and humid. It was the middle of the summer after all. Besides, due to all the pollution from Shinra, they didn't get cold weather in Midgar like they used too, even in the winter.

Reno drew back, a frown tugging across his face. "Rude, help me get her out of this, yo. It could have been an accident, but we gotta check for sure." It was very possible that the girl had just been taking shelter in the old church, and slipped and hit her head. However, there were alarms going off in Reno's head like crazy, and his hand was itching to go for his Electro-Mag Rod. Plus, he was pretty sure she should have been doing that thing dead bodies did. Like, disintegrating in green sparkles.

Whatever was going on, he had a bad feeling about it. And it had something to do with this dead chick.

Then, said dead chick abruptly lurched out of the water with a gasp.

That definitely did not make sense. Reno had been absolutely sure she was 100% dead. She had been the kind of dead that was supposed to mean a one way trip to the life-stream and eternal peace. Dead, as in: no breath, no brain functions, no heart beating. Dead. Like, the permanent kind of dead. However, apparently that did not apply to her, because she was most definitely not acting like she had died.

The girl was hacking, and coughing, and there was a truckload of water pouring out of her gaping mouth. All the while she was desperately trying to steady herself, and there were waves splashing everywhere as she flailed her arms about madly, and her feet slipped on the bottom of the pool. For a second it looked like she was about to tip over and smash her head against floor, but Reno reacted quickly, and caught her before she could make herself as dead as he had thought she had been.

"Woah, woah there. Rude, a little help, yo!" Reno was doing his very best not to flip out at the undead lady, but it was pretty difficult to think straight when he was dodging arms, and trying not to fall into the water as well. "Lady, you got to calm down, yo!"

By then Rude was there, and was helping to pull the frantic female out of the water. Of course, both Turks ended up completely soaked, and were pretty out of breath. Whoever the undead girl was, she was freaking nuts. Reno knew he sure did not want to see the chick armed and angry.

The girl collapsed on the floor, using one arm to hold herself up as she tried to get the last of the water out of her body and greedily inhaled air. Next to her, Reno had dropped onto the ground as well, though he was still sitting, and Rude was half leaning against the wall behind them.

"Damn. You're pretty crazy, yo." Reno glanced at the girl who was breathing heavily. He realized quickly that she was completely out of it. Her face was illuminated by the water's soft glow, and he could see that, though her eyes were stretched wide, they were unfocused, and fearful. Her pale face was still contorted in a completely desperate expression, lips tinged blue from the cold, and open wide to gulp in as much air as possible.

The red haired Turk shot a pleading look at Rude, "Do something," he mouthed and nodded his head emphatically at the undead chick. For a second the bald man simply stared at the two of them, and Reno almost thought he was going to be left to deal with it. However, then Rude stepped forward and knelt next to the girl, carefully reaching out a hand, and patting her on the back.

Reno was almost certain that it was not going to help much, but he didn't know what else to do.

So they sat there for several minutes, the girl catching her breath, and Rude awkwardly petting her back. Reno considered calling Director Tseng to tell him that, no, they had not gotten in contact with Cloud yet, and that they had found the body of dead person who turned out to still be alive. However he decided against it because he really did not want to listen to the director going all commando just then.

At last the girl seemed to have settled down at little. At that point Reno turned all his Turk interrogation powers on her. Sort of. Mostly he was really just wishing they had never been sent to the old ruins of Midgar, because he really did not want to deal with a hysterical girl who had supposedly just came back from the dead.

"So, how are you feeling, yo?" he scratched the back of his head, and then tried to make eye contact with her to see if she had any clue what was going on.

The girl tilted her head so that she could see him, and opened her mouth to speak. At first nothing came out. She snapped her mouth shut, eyes widening again. Now Reno could see that they were blood shot, and sore looking.

"I-I'm…" her voice was rough, barely more than a whisper. No doubt her throat was raw from all that coughing. "What's going on?" she wheezed at him, and the look she gave him… Reno had seen it before in trauma victims. That was the look that said the victim was urgently trying to hold themselves together, but it was not really working.

He nodded at her, hoping he looked patient, and friendly. "Not really sure, yo. My partner and I found ya lying there in the water. To be honest we thought you were dead." Actually, we were positive you were dead, Reno thought, but he did not say it. The girl didn't look like she could handle much more. "You want to tell us who you are?" And why in Gaia's name you were lying there like that.

The girl took another deep breath, and tried to sit up. Her limbs were shaking, and she looked like she was going to topple over again. Rude reached out, carefully steadying her. Honestly he was acting like she might shatter, which Reno would have teased him about at any other time, except she really did look like she was about to break into a million pieces. The way she was slumped over, and her cloths and hair hung to her unhealthily skinny frame, it all made her look totally pathetic. Actually, it made her look like one of the starving kids from the slums, before the plate had fallen anyway. That, or she had the look of the people shortly after Meteor-Fall, with a desolate, haunted look in their eyes.

"Lowry," she breathed, and then cleared her throat again. "Lowry Stanton." She shuddered slightly, her eyes falling to her lap, where her hands were lying, trembling.

Both Turks followed her gaze, and were shocked by the state of the appendages. Her palms, and fingers were bruised, as well as raw. In some sections it looked like the flesh had been peeled away, almost as if someone had rubbed sandpaper across her skin. There was no blood, since the water had no doubt washed it away, but against the paleness of the rest of her skin the injuries were shockingly red.

"What the... What happened to you, yo?" The red headed Turk slanted his eyes towards her face again. What he saw was not all that encouraging. She was staring fixedly at the damage, her lips quivering as she mutely tried to say something.

"Ah, damn, she's going into shock!" Reno lurched forward, and grabbed her chin. He tried getting her to look at him, but, even as he leaned forward to catch her eyes, he saw that she was gazing at nothing. "Calm down, just calm down. You're all right. Take a deep breath. Damn it! Rude, call a doctor, or the director, or something, yo!"

Fortunately Rude had already pulled out his phone and was dialling up Tseng, who would be get a medic to them pronto.

"Hey, lady-Lowry. Lowry, you need to stay calm, yo." Now, Reno could smooth talk a woman in a bar like he was born doing it. He could go in for an interrogation, and get the perp to think they were best buds. He could sass an opponent to within an inch of their sanity. In the office, he had had been known for his ability to not stop talking. He could not, however, placate a person that was distressed to the point of throwing a fit. "Look, um...Rude how's that phone call going, yo?"

Rude snapped his phone shut, and nodded at Reno. "Doctor's on the way. The director will be arriving as well. He's got some questions." In other words, he was pissed off that two of his Turks had gotten side-tracked from their mission, and wanted to know what was so important that he was getting an emergency call from Rude. If Tseng was anything, it was organized. So if the director discovered that something was not right, he expected it to be made right in the near to immediate future. If something was out of normal, Tseng wanted to know everything.

This situation was not normal.

"Frig. That's the last thing this girl needs. Do that thing again... You know. Pat her on the back. It worked last time, yo."

Rude quirked an eyebrow up, though it was almost imperceptible. Instead of pointlessly treating the hysterical female like she was a weepy child, he slid off his suit jacket and draped it over her shoulders. It was still sort of damp from where the Turks had gotten her out of the pool, but it was better than nothing. Then again, the girl really did not to be in a state of mind where she would be at all moved by small gestures if kindness, effective or not. The only thing that mattered was that she was warm. Supposedly. Reno was pretty sure that was important when dealing with shock patients.

This reminded him that she was probably freezing. "She isn't going to get hypothermia is she, yo?" Her cloths were still soaked, and Reno could feel that unsettling chill of a corpse from where he had checked for a pulse lingering on the pads of his fingers. Not only was it completely abnormal, but it was very unsettling.

"I don't know," Rude muttered, crouching down next to the girl. He murmured something Reno could not hear, and gently rested a hand on the girls shoulder. For a second Reno was struck by how fatherly Rude appeared, but he did not get much time to dwell on it before he found himself knocked to the ground. The girl had lurched away from Rude like he was some kind of viper, and when she realized that had only made her collide with Reno she was scrambling away like a crab.

"Hey now," Reno hissed as he sat up. His patience was wearing sort of thin.

"I'll kill you."

"Look, I-What?"

The girl lifted her head, and stared at him with savage, pale eyes. "I'll do it. I'll rip your throat out."

* * *

_**A/N:**__ I'm sorry! I've had this bouncing around for almost a year, and I just really really wanted to do something with it. For those of you following Odyssey, do not fear! The next chapter of that story should be up sometime this weekend if there are no problems. Oh, just so you know, this is NOT and insert story of any kind. Not and OC insert, or a self insert. You will find out eventually... Muhahahahahaha!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

BREATH!

Was it a memory, haunting her in the form of a nightmare? Or was it an awful premonition of her own hopeless fate?

Lowry jerked awake, gasping for breath with the desperation of a dying man. Her fingers clawed at her own throat with enough force to bring out blood, her panic all-consuming. She could not hear anything over the high-pitched ringing in her ears, and everything was so black that she could not see. It was like she had not awoken at all, and was still stuck in that suffocating, lifeless dream.

Then suddenly there was a radiance as a door swung open, and dull lights flickered on. It was blinding, painful, but Lowry could not stand to close her eyes against it. Instead she stared at her bright surrounding with her watering, blurry eyes. It was unfamiliar, and terrifyingly sterile. Everything was blank, white, cold, and impersonal.

"Miss!"

The woman blinked, slowly rising from her own delirium. "I...where am I?" Looking at the man who was addressing her, she gathered that it had to be some sort of medical facility. Paired with her surroundings, he was dressed professionally, and had a white lab coat with the clichéd stethoscope around his neck. So, it was either an infirmary of some sort, or a crazy lab. Considering how many tubes were hooked up to her, she really hoped that it was the former.

Considering all the crazy things that had gone down in past few years, Lowry would not have been surprised if tit turned out to be the latter though.

"Relax," the man smiled gently. He had to be about middle-aged, and had droopy brown eyes that seemed pretty honest. Lowry figured he was fairly trustworthy. He did not really fit her idea of a crazy scientist, and even though that was not necessarily an accurate indicator, if she breathed in she could smell nothing but lemon cleaner, and she had not heard any tortured screaming. As a result, the young woman felt pretty comfortable scratching the "underground-lab-conducting-immoral-experiments" off the list.

She took a breath, relishing the soothing feeling it gave her. In only a moment she allowed the tension that had made her muscles into tightly coiled springs to seep away. Then, she offered a hesitant smile to the man, ready for him to continue.

He nodded, then cleared his throat. "This will be easier if you explain to me what you remember. Can you recall anything before you got here?"

Lowry hesitated, a frown slowly etching itself into her face. "Not really. I was..." She tensed up again, forcing her eyes shut, and trying to dig up the last thing she remembered. She was hit with a whirl of emotions and images, neither of which made much sense, or gave her any clue to how she had ended up where she was. There was something wrong, she knew that much. A sickening feeling had welled up inside her, twisting up her insides and making her want to vomit all over the place.

_Icy cold. It was as familiar as it was repugnant. It stung against her exposed flesh, made her mouth, nose, and eyes ache as the chill pervaded every part of her being. In a way she felt like all her air was turning to a block of ice, weighing down her lungs so that she was gasping for air. Even her limbs felt as though their were made of fragile stone that would break off at the slightest touch. That cold, it deadened her._

_All the same, she staggered forward. Her movements were slowed by the creeping numbness, as well as the heavy snow that cloaked everything and muffled the sounds of the wilderness. It never seemed to end, always there like a disease of white, falling from the heavens in huge flakes, the snow which was just as terrifyingly familiar as the biting temperatures. It was because she knew it so well that she had managed to come as far as she had. Were it not for the fact that she was so reluctantly at home in the northern conditions, she would have died long ago._

_Even still, she was struggling. However the urgency that pushed her onwards was beguiling. It was impossible to ignore, such that it set her already shivering hands quaking from adrenalin. There was no time for her to waste in that barren place, instead she had to go. She had to, no matter what. Her destination called to her, summoned her with the force of a chain linked about her neck._

_There was no escaping it, that dark foreboding mountain._

"Miss?" The voice jerked her back to the present.

Lowry blinked furiously, trying to clear the imprint of the looming peak from her eyes. It was almost as if it had been seared there, like a brand. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

The doctor frowned, just briefly enough for Lowry to notice, before he was back to his patient self. "I was just telling you that you were found unconscious in some ruins. You seemed to have drowned. Can you tell me anything about that? Anything at all?"

"Drowned?" Immediately Lowry thought of her dream. Was that where it was from? "I think so... It was cold, and I could not swim because of...rapids?"

The young woman would not have noticed the subtle change in her interrogator's demeanour, had he not shifted his gaze to the left ever so slightly. When she looked in the same direction, she found herself facing a large mirror. It was just outside of her field of view, so that had she not looked purposefully it never would have registered. As it was, she found herself staring at it, shaken. Not so much because of her reflection, which was certainly something to be shocked about, but the uncomfortable feeling she got from it.

That pane of glass reminded her of ice. Piercing, silent, and dangerously misleading.

"What else do you remember?"

Lowry turned back, hands suddenly clammy, throat going dry with the effort it took to ignore the uneasy feeling that she was being watched. The woman didn't know whether to say anything about it, or play at innocence. Neither seemed like they would help her in any way, but she decided she would be safer if she did not ask too many questions, and played along the way she was supposed to.

"Um, well, I. Uh..." She licked her lips, and tried to settle her jumping heart. "Something about a, um, a red-head? There was a guy with red hair, and someone else." She breathed in deeply and forced herself to think more. When the memories of the cold, and the snow threatened to swallow her up she blocked it out and focused instead on the blurry image of red hair. "Er, I think they were the ones who found me?" It was more of a question than a statement.

The doctor smiled, and nodded, but it was not nearly as comforting as it had been. "Yes. You were discovered by two men. One does have red hair. Is there anything else?"

Clearly there was more than she thought, but if there was Lowry had no recollection of it. "Uh..."

Having realized that the young woman had reached her limits, the medic straightened. "Well it's fine. You have obviously had quite an ordeal, and you suffered some head trauma. At this, a noticeable scowl appeared on his face, and his eyes once again darted towards the mirror. "I suggest you get some rest for now, and we can deal with everything tomorrow. There's a button on the side of the bed if you need anything. The nurses are on duty right through the night, so there will always be someone nearby. Shall I leave a light on?"

Lowry nodded weakly, trying her best not to let her overwhelming relief show. The minute she was alone though, she sighed heavily. Something was going on, and it seemed like it was one giant puzzle. Unfortunately, she had a feeling that some of the pieces had gotten lost along the way. The result was that she had no idea what was going on at all.

_First things first then._ Lowry scrambled out of bed. The minute she did, she found herself clutching her head in pain. It felt like she had gotten walloped by an Ice Golem. With a groan she carefully cupped the back of her skull, and felt a swollen bump. Whatever had happened when she had been found, it seemed like she had smacked her head pretty badly.

After a few seconds she pulled her hands away, becoming momentarily distracted by the bandages that wound their way over her fingers, and halfway up her wrists. There's was no skin left visible. She was half tempted to take them off to see what kind of damage they were concealing, but whoever had taped her up had done a pretty thorough job. It kinda seemed like waste.

Surrendering to the fact that she was in tough shape with no idea why, Lowry focused on the mission at hand. She wanted to have a look around, and hopefully get a feeling for her surroundings. The first thing that drew her attention of course, was the suspicious mirror on the far wall. Everything else made her think she was in a normal hospital or clinic room, but that mirror stood out. Not only did it seem abnormally big for a regular mirror, but just looking at it gave her goosebumps.

She padded over to it, using the machine she was hooked up to as support, and taking no heed to the way the cold floor tiles numbed her toes. Her eyes were fixed solely on the glass, trying to see _through_ it. Was there something on the other side? Something that was watching her, maybe waiting for her to let down her guard and then strike? Lowry could not tell. The only thing she could see was her own dimly lit figure, staring back with fierce intensity.

It was a little startling to see herself with such a focused glare. Heck, she had to admit that she was a bit surprised by her own reflection itself. The young woman was not sure what she expected, but it had not been what she got.

Gaunt, hollow-cheeked, with an almost insect-like appearance. Her skin practically hung off her bones, with little else to fill it out. Dressed in one of those nasty paper hospital gowns, there wasn't not much left to the imagination. Truth to be told, she looked like she had just crawled out of a coffin. She was completely washed out, with skin so white it was nearly translucent. Enough to show the dark veins that throbbed just below the surface anyway. Her hair, which seemed like it had once been blonde sort of reminded her of ash, and her eyes were enough to make her gasp, and stumble away.

Grey. Not just any grey though, they were the grey of winter clouds, of dirty snow, and deep cracking ice. Her own gaze was frigid enough to send Lowry's mind reeling back to thoughts of imposing glaciers, and cutting rawness. Those eyes were granite, slate, and she hated them with the abrupt fierceness of a hurricane.

She hissed angrily, the feeling of loathing coming out of nowhere. Still, that reflection stared back with that repulsive look. She wanted it gone!

SLAM!

Lowry screeched in pain, her knuckles screaming. A string of curses slipped passed her lips as she realized that there was now blood seeping through the bandages that wrapped up her hand, and it felt like she could not move her index finger. Hopefully it was temporary. The last thing she wanted was to end up with a broken appendage all because she was a spastic freak.

Clearly punching the mirror had not been her brightest idea. There wasn't even a crack to show for her efforts, and suddenly the pale woman remembered her earlier contemplations. If there was anyone on the other side, they had just gotten front row seats to a display of her going bonkers.

With a groan, Lowry plunked her forehead against the mirror, though she did so gingerly. Her head was already injured, and she did not need any more wounds. "Hey. I might be crazy, but if someone's over there, feel free to disregard the last five minutes."

There was no answer, not that she expected one.

* * *

Reno wanted to go to bed.

Ever since the undead girl had shown up, his life had gone from tiresome to really freaking exhausting. It was not like she was winning any points from him, what with threatening to kill him, and throwing him into a world of long, repetitive reports, and Tseng's extensive grilling. Rude had gotten off lucky, and after sharing his version he was once more sent in search of Cloud. Reno, however, had been kept long after hours, and was made to go through the events again, and again. Then again once more.

When he had finally gotten a break, just as he had settled down on the sticky, vinyl lounge seats outside of Tseng's office with a cup of admittedly disgusting coffee, his pager started beeping. It was like he was cursed, or someone had it out for him, because apparently the reanimated _corpse_ (Reno refused to believe the girl was actually alive, even after all the tests she had been put through) was throwing some conniption fit. Which meant he had to go, and investigate since he had apparently been put in charge of the case.

Man. He had said it before, and he would say it again. The chick, _zombie thing_, was _crazy_. Off her rocker, gone round the bend, a complete nutter. When he finally got to the floor she was being kept on, which didn't actually take that long compared to before Shinra had gotten blasted five ways to Sunday, she was thrashing around like a drowned man. Which was pretty ironic, all things considered.

The nurse, a very fine young lady who fit her uniform just right, was babbling on about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or something, and the doctor was shifting around like a perp caught with hot merchandise. It was really damn irritating, because it was like they were waiting for him to tell them what to do, only they were the professionals. Was he supposed to direct them on how to take care of a loony phenomenon?

In the end he ordered the doc to go do whatever it was he was supposed to be doing, and sent the little man scurrying.

Which conveniently left him alone with the nurse, who he was realizing looked even nicer up close. Thick auburn hair, sparkly blue eyes, and that cherry-red lipstick smile. For all of five minutes, Reno did not resent the zombie on the other side of the two-way mirror. If finding dead people meant he could chat with pretty nurses who only had old men for company, he would welcome them any day.

He was pretty devoted to reaping his just rewards too, but then his damn Turk instinct kicked in when he picked up on the tense silence coming from the other room. Honestly, he tried to ignore it, he really did, but out of the corner of his eye he could see the corpse looking like she had gotten hit by a train. That seemed pretty normal for her, but she was rambling on about rapids and not being able to swim, which gave it a whole new feeling.

Since, obviously being a zombie wasn't good enough, now it seemed she had freaking amnesia.

Reno cursed, accidentally pissing off the nurse who he had disregarded for a few seconds. As she stormed out, Reno felt his resentment rising again, and shot a glare towards the undead chick. Only she was staring straight back.

That settled it. Even as Zombie McCreepy finished the short interrogation, pretending like she was not hyper aware of the viewing glass, Reno glared at the back of her head. He half hoped she might spontaneously combust for making his life so freaking difficult, but no such luck. Although, he did get some satisfaction when she tried punching the glass separating them, because _honestly_. She spent several minutes staring at it, through it, maybe at her own reflection, then hauled off and walloped it. It was the damn dumbest garbage he had ever seen,

He sort of wished she could see him, so that she would know he was laughing his ass off at her, but he had to make do with her pathetic plea that if anyone was there, they ignore her.

In the end it was decided that he and Tseng would question her officially the next morning. Rufus had been informed of their discovery, and even though something like this would normally get turned over to the WRO for its suspicious nature, the Turks had been ordered to get some concrete information. The fact that she was found, floating dead in Aerith's pool, much in the same way Cloud had been after defeating those psycho remnants, was...well nothing short of really flipping ominous. The more they knew, the better, seemed to be the general idea.

Then again, considering everything that had happened in the last ten years because of secrets and hidden knowledge, Reno suspected everyone was a little more paranoid, and a little less willing to just blindly trust what was in front of their eyes. It was not so new to a Turk, but the rest of the civilians were staggering under the blow, and even the fiery red-head could tell that for all the growth they had made, it would take a long time before the wound fully healed.

Even then, the scar was bound to last forever.

Reno groaned, running a hand through his hair, and shot one last look at the zombie. She was still leaning against the window, one heavily bandaged hand clutching her IV rack, the other resting limply against her stomach. He could not tell if she was about to be sick, or start crying. However, the way her eyes were staring forward, unseeing, he figured it was somewhere in between.

Honestly those eyes were eery. While he was relieved that they weren't cat-like or glowing, they were still unnerving. The pupils were heavily contracted against even the dim amount of light in the room, leaving irises such a pale grey they seemed like steel. It was even more disconcerting because of the way they seemed so emotionless, so objective. It was not like she was masking her feelings, but even as her face contorted into some expression, those eyes stayed the same.

Reno opened his mouth to question the doctor, stopped, and frowned. "Make sure ya check her hand tomorrow, yo. Maybe put some pain meds in her IV." She threw a lousy punch. He could see blood staining her bandages, which meant she had gone and added to her injuries. Dumb broad. Then again, he'd heard zombies weren't the brightest bulbs in the box.

He was not sure what he had expected. Considering the undead chick had threatened to kill, no, _rip his throat out,_ he was kind of anticipating some savage homicidal maniac, or traumatized soldier, or maybe a legit monster. There had been so many of them, he hardly would have been surprised if it turned out she was yet another of Hojo's mad experiments come for revenge.

Now she just looked pathetic.

It almost made him feel bad when he thought of the fact that shortly after she had threatened him, he had knocked her out with a solid blow to the back of her head.

* * *

_**A/N:** So. It's not Death Note fiction. That's on the way. Normally I would do at least one more spell/grammar check on this, but I was working, and now I am tired. I doubt I am capable of editing this any more. So, if you see any inconsistencies, tell me in a review or something. Also, I wanna know how you all feel about my portrayal of Reno. Really badly. And stuff. Yeah. I'm gone._


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